Illegal ivory trade: Two tonnes of elephant tusks are inspected by a customs officer. Photo: AFP

The carvings, jewellery, trinkets and tusks – seized over 25 years through border confiscations – were reduced to powder.

In Tanzania last week, three Chinese nationals suspected of elephant poaching were charged for possessing 706 tusks weighing 1.8 tonnes and worth an estimated $3.29 million.

The US also announced a $1 million reward for information to help break up one of Asia's largest wildlife trafficking syndicates, based in Laos.

The animal trade worldwide is estimated to be worth up to $10 billion annually.

Advertisement

Last month, a 36-year-old Japanese man appeared before Perth magistrates charged with trying to smuggle nine shingleback lizards out of Australia after he was stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers at Perth airport.

Indonesia is one of the worst offenders, according to the animal trade monitoring group Traffic.

You will now receive updates fromBreaking News Alert

Breaking News Alert

Traffic's south-east Asia representative Chris Shepherd said the wildlife trade was a leading threat to many species in Indonesia, with trade in illegal protected species carried out with blatant disregard for the law.

"Species are smuggled in and out of Indonesia, with the significant wildlife traders operating with little or no fear of the law. Untouchables, so to speak," Mr Shepherd said.

“Enforcement efforts in Indonesia must be focused on shutting down the large markets selling illegal wildlife trade, and on the traders sitting on top of the trade pyramids. The big players need to be put out of business if enforcement efforts are to have any lasting impact”.

The world is dealing with an unprecedented jump in illegal wildlife trade threatening to overturn decades of conservation gains, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

International networks traffic wildlife and animal parts much like illegal drugs and arms. Poachers use helicopters and semi-automatic weapons. Conservationists are turning to using drones to try to intercept them.

According to a recent United Nations Environment Program study, the number of elephants illegally killed in Africa has doubled in the past decade, reaching 25,000 killed last year, while the ivory trade has tripled.

By last month, more than 790 rhinos had been poached this year in South Africa, topping last year's count of 668.

The uses for trafficked animals are many. Chinese medicines prepared from animals include rhino horn for night sight pills, bear bile for the treatment of haemorrhoids, and tiger penis in a capsule called Dragon Male Tonic.

All of the animal's body parts are traded. "With tigers it's everything, the penis, the bones. There's a whole mismanagement of animals," Ms Grossfeldt said.

"I have just come back from Vietnam. There's nothing left. There's a few remaining populations of leaf-eating primates and pangolin but everything else is stuffed in a bottle or consumed.

"Animals also are the victims when they get in the way of big business, like the production of palm oil.

"One of the worst things that I have ever seen was an orang-utan baby that was handed in to a sanctuary in Borneo I do volunteer work at," Ms Grossfeldt said.

"He'd had both of his arms removed to free him from his mother who had been macheted, we think as the result of being in a palm oil plantation. He came in and I just felt sick. He survived and ended up living with another orangutan that had been shot 100 times with a pellet gun and was blind. Those two boys have lived together helping each other to feed. They will never be released back into the wild because they would never be able to survive."

The trade has also taken its toll on rangers protecting the animals, with 1000 killed in Africa in the past 10 years, according to the Environmental News Service in the US. Rangers received a critical boost in July when President Barack Obama announced the development of a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking and $10 million in funding.

Traffic has also highlighted a trade in echidnas, which are claimed to have been captive-bred in Indonesia.

It says, given the difficulty of breeding them in captivity and attempts to smuggle wild-caught echidnas out of West Papua, there must be an illegal supply of wild-caught animals.

An Australian black cockatoo can be worth up to $30,000 and there are even specially made coats with concealed pockets in which to hold the eggs and keep them warm.

Simon Duffy, general manager life sciences, research and conservation at Taronga, said wildlife trade was considered the No. 2 threat to wildlife across the globe after habitat loss.

In some countries, such as Vietnam, he said, there were reports that consuming some of the animal products was becoming fashionable again.

"We make decisions every day that have implications for wildlife," Mr Duffy said. "Ask the right questions and choose the sustainable options whether you are buying coffee, toilet paper or furniture."